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Monthly Archives: May 2013

It’s Friday and a good time for an excursion into the Portraitsphere! This time we’re zipping off to Toronto, Canada to check out the work of artist Paul Boddum.

Here is a portion of Paul’s artist statement as it relates to dogs in his work:

“The original idea for his twenty-four year ongoing series of dog works began during a trip to a dog show in the mid-1980’s. The source of Paul’s early works were photos he had taken there as well as sourcing vintage dog breed books at second hand book shops. Not having his own dog at the time, his ongoing series was influenced by oberving other city dwellers’ dogs; everyday joyful interactions between dogs, owners, and strangers had a unique positive energy that gave a big urban city a warmth and added to the fabric of a healthy community.

Paul is continually inspired by seeing people’s connection to their pets, how they enrich their lives, and become a part of their family. Growing up as an adoptee, Paul has always been interested in exploring the effects of nature versus nurture, and the transformative bond that forms from the domestic pet’s innate need to be cared for by others. Paul is also a long time vegetarian.”

Paul’s abstract paintings (without dogs) are also wonderful explorations of color and texture, expressionistic journeys influenced of memories, dreams and music. And when he combines this approach with the portrait of a dog, I find the result to be incredibly reassuring. A lot of people seem to request artist commissions of their dog after its passing, and by creating such a thoughtful background environment it seems very comforting to me. In other words, we’re not quite sure exactly where this place or space is because we can’t identify shapes or forms that are familiar to us, but it’s dreamlike and poetic. Our beloved is there, they’re safe, and it’s a beautiful image to behold.

Paul works mostly in acrylics, adding thick layers of a gel medium at the end that creates an encaustic type of surface. Working from photos, he strives to make each painting a unique original customized to clients’ size, style and color requests. Although he’s based in Toronto much of his work is from outside of the area, ordered online. His paintings can be found in homes across the US, Canada, and internationally.

In addition to being a gifted artist, Paul is also big-hearted: he’s devoted to helping animal charities by donating portrait commissions and original paintings to raise money on a regular basis.

Here is a listing of Paul’s upcoming exhibitions if you would like to see his work in person.

There’s a new museum in Italy that I would love to visit someday, and it’s called foof (and when I do I’ll have to ask them what “foof” means exactly, but it does sound doglike). Located about 45km north of Naples in the Campania region in a coastal town called Mondragone, this is Italy’s first museum dedicated to dogs and it looks like a really wonderful concept. Of course it’s beautiful, because, well, it’s Italian.

Their focus is to explore the history and intersections between man and dog in the areas of work, play, companionship, technology, art and popular culture. You’ll see everything from a 35 million-year-old fossil of a dog from America to original works of art by Botero and Jeff Koons. They also have adoptable dogs there that visitors can meet and get to know in the play areas outside to make that perfect match. But the one thing that I love most of all is their dedication to educating kids and adults, because it’s only through education that the problems of pet overpopulation, animal abuse and abandonment will improve and become a thing of the past.

For me, foof combines my favorite things under the sun: dogs, design, Italy and good deeds. If you would like to visit foof in Mondragone, you can get the details from their website here. Foof! Foof!